Speak Out 12/09/02

Consumer pays

ALL OF these people calling for increased taxes on businesses and corporations need to retake Economics 101. Taxes, like rent and utilities, are part of overhead. If taxes are increased, businesses simply raise the prices of their products to cover the increased overhead. It's the consumer who pays these taxes.

Not on reading list

IT GRIPES me to read about the Faulkner collection at SEMO. We taxpayers paid for this collection to the tune of over $1 million. We taxpayers paid a professor to catalog the papers for over a year. How can we raise tuition on students when the university spends so much money irresponsibly on something like the Faulkner collection. Faulkner was a dud. His books aren't good. I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting their time reading his books.

A little leeway

I LIVE in Jackson. If the city is going to be closed for two days and trash pickups are going to be disrupted for two days, city officials might reconsider letting residents put an extra bag of trash out. I tried that this week, but I'm still limited to my three bags. I only put four bags out, and one extra bag got an orange sticker.

Need new decorations

I'VE LIVED in Jackson for years. We have the ugliest Christmas street decorations. Why in the world doesn't somebody help the chamber of commerce to get some new decorations? These have just been hanging there for years.

Holiday in the park

I WANT to thank whoever takes care of and organizes the Cape County Park North display with the Christmas stuff. It's very beautiful. The people who are responsible need recognition.

Election Day pay

THE SCOTT County election workers would all like to know why the Mississippi County workers made twice the amount of money for doing the same job on Election Day. We all worked 14 hours, plus we went to Benton for at least two hours the day before for new instructions. All of the workers are upset over this.

Blame yourself

TO THE person who said it's too much to ask a parent to be a good parent when he only makes $6 or $7 an hour: What were you making before you had kids? You knew you didn't have all those amenities before you had kids, but you had to be selfish and reproduce. Don't blame your lack of responsibility on the economy. Blame it on yourself.

Let's take care of it

THE UNITED States is not to blame for the ills of the Iraqi people. That blame belongs squarely at the feet of Saddam Hussein. He has refused to adhere to any of the agreements at the end of the Gulf War. Subsequently, world opinion has kept the useless sanctions in place. He rakes in billions in oil revenue yearly and uses the money to buy the aluminum cylinders needed for his nuclear-weapons research rather than necessities for his people. I'm not pro-war, but at some point we are going to have to deal with this man. Let our generation take care of this problem. We're passing enough other problems on to our children.

Other examples

DID WE invade when Suharto of Indonesia killed thousands of innocent people in East Timor? How about 40,000 dead in Chile at the hands of Pinochet? We didn't invade in any of these instances. We installed U.S.-backed regime changes. We armed them to the teeth. There is nothing moral about our intentions in Afghanistan, which is now in shambles, or now in Iraq. Face it, it's about oil.

Too little information

THE BIGGEST threat to our world is people who think they can make a judgment about going to war based on little but what they see on corporate-controlled television. They often have no sense of history, U.S. foreign policy or the current world configuration. They are easily manipulated. It's really amazing how certain they are about everything and how little they actually know.

Thanks for online photos

THANK YOU, Southeast Missourian, for all the photos you put online. I live in Arizona during the winter, but I check your Web site every day to follow the news at home. All the pictures of the kids playing in the snow and the Parade of Lights made me wish I was there. Thank you for bringing a smile to my life and reminding me how much fun winter can be.

No weekends

SO NOW we're going to have another nature center. The one we have now isn't even open on the weekends.

A kink in the road

FOR THE citizens of Cape Girardeau who think the S-curve in North Main Street makes us so unique, could you please explain that? What's so special about a swerve in the road that has proven itself over the years to cause accidents? I'm sure that a visitor to Cape Girardeau who doesn't know that turn and gets into an accident would jump out and say, "Well, it's OK, because this place is so unique." You people are probably big fans of that roundabout at Gordonville and Silver Springs roads.

Work out our problems

ONE CAN legally drive at age 16 -- or is it 15 1/2? One can legally have sex at age 17 -- or is it younger? One can vote at age 18 -- if at all. And drink at age 21 -- or does that depend on your parents? When can a young mother and her infant child live in a shed? We can ask all the questions we want, but until we realize that it takes a community to raise a child, we won't solve anything. For those of us who didn't know the mother or the baby who died in the fire, we are grieving too. The news makes me sick to my stomach. If I could give my life for theirs, I would do it so my children wouldn't have to endure the endless barrage of worst-case news the television and papers can find to print. With more and more and more people in the world every day, we must learn to get along and work our problems out together for the best of our future, our youths and their futures.

A little variety

I AGREE with the writer's comments concerning the university's canned carillon songs -- the same ones over and over. A hymn or a classical strain would, from time to time, be uplifting. But the marches -- ugh!

Tough choices

AMY COLE'S guest column made good points for keeping the SEMO gymnastics program. I commend her for writing it. But in the end, junior varsity soccer and women's golf would involve more women at less cost than gymnastics. It would be a shame if the girls on the gymnastics team couldn't complete their eligibility here. It would be a shame to lose gymnastics too, because a lot of great memories have been established here. But difficult financial times demand difficult decisions. If that's what Southeast decides, it's understandable.

Parental duties

I HAVE to disagree with the person who said negligent parents were not at fault for their children's low test scores. Having money, insurance or amenities has absolutely nothing to do with being a negligent parent. Our family makes just enough money to get by. We live from paycheck to paycheck. We have two sons, 9 and 12, both of whom are in the Alert Program in school for gifted students. One son is musically and intellectually gifted. Our other son specializes in mathematics and science. From the time they were babies, we read to them. Both boys love to read and spend time reading for fun. We played music. There wasn't a time except when I was sleeping that there wasn't music of all kinds filling our home. The key here is time spent teaching them, being with them, letting them know they are loved, supported and respected. My husband and I both have full-time jobs and take classes at SEMO. But we always find time to give to our children. Parents must do their part and stop blaming society, teachers, peer pressure or whatever the latest fad is. If we don't take responsibility for ourselves, it's no wonder our children don't take responsibility for themselves.